During bloody battles in 1944 between American and Japanese almost two dozen aircraft had fallen into waters around Palau, leaving around 70 airmen missing in action.
The Japanese wanted to use the islands for battle preparation and refuelling grounds — and so did the Allies. Numerous aircraft were lost in the waters of Palau, submerged for decades with little closure for the families of fallen airmen.
The B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing and one of the largest aircraft to have seen service during World War II. It was a very advanced bomber for its time, with features such as a pressurized cabin, an electronic fire-control system, and a quartet of remote-controlled machine-gun turrets operated by the fire-control system in addition to its defensive tail gun installation.
he old chamber which is over 40 years old, was run by St John Ambulance & Rescue Service and used to treat divers with decompression sickness until it was closed in April. It was solely funded by public donations and located at the Ambulance Station on the outskirts of Guernsey’s main town, St Peter Port.
A new archaeological study has discovered a Haida site dating back 13,800 years off British Columbia’s Juan Perez Sound. Led by archaeologist Quentin Mackie of the University of Victoria, the team discovered the site near the Haida Gwaii Archipelago and is believed to feature a fishing weir, a man-made channel used to corral fish.
Etihad Airways has unveiled its new Business Suites that will have passengers in the pointy end facing the rear of the plane. Privacy screens will ensure passengers are not directly facing one another, while integration of the rear-facing seats in ‘dovetail’ formation allows increased business class capacity allowing 70 suites in its A380. Forward and backward facing seats will be configured 1-2-1, meaning all will have aisle access.
Potato cod in Queensland are at risk and their placid and curious nature appears to be playing a major part. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) is investigating reports that illegal fishing and fish 'framing' are responsible for declining potato cod numbers at the Cod Hole, a popular dive site off Lizard Island.
As the saying goes, you are what you eat. Researchers at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station are using this adage to better understand the life history of the salmon shark. An important apex predator and cousin of the great white, this far-ranging species roams the entire North Pacific Ocean, from Alaska to the warm sub-tropics of Hawaii and the Baja Peninsula
Scientists have known that humpback whales have a trick or two when it comes to finding prey at the bottom of the ocean, but how they locate a meal at night with little or no light has remained a mystery.
A new study has analyzed the importance of specific auditory cues that the creatures emit as they search the deep ocean for prey. 'Humpback whales are known to cooperate with others to corral prey near the surface,' said Professor Susan Parks of Syracuse University. “Recent studies suggest they may cooperate [with each other], when feeding on bottom prey, as well”, she added.
A recent study by James Cook University has revealed tourists are more worried about an oil spill ruining the Great Barrier Reef than it being stripped of its World Heritage status. A team of researchers from JCU’s Business School, led by tourism expert Professor Bruce Prideaux, surveyed 980 visitors to Far North Queensland between September 2013 and February 2014.
The study explored Cairns tourists’ thoughts as to how the marine park may be affected by a range of threats, including oil spills, coral bleaching and UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee listing the site as “in danger”.
Travellers will be pleased that plummeting oil prices are set to have a positive impact on airline ticket prices. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced an improved outlook for industry profitability in its Economic Performance of the Air Transport Industry report.
On a per-passenger basis, airlines will make a net profit of $7.08 in 2015, more than double the $3.38 earnings achieved in 2013. As lower industry costs and efficiencies are passed through, consumers are set to benefit substantially.
In order to understand the rich genus diversity in Turkey, a group of researchers from Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Faculty of Fisheries collected samples from more than 200 localities throughout the country between 2004 and 2014. The resulting paper, published in the open access journal ZooKeys, focuses only on the Salmo species distributed in the Alakır Stream drainage, from where the new species was described. It as named Salmo kottelati after Maurice Kottelat, who contributed to the knowledge of the fish fauna of Europe and Asia.
A new study has revealed that humpback whales residing in the Arabian Sea are the most genetically distinct humpbacks in the world. Unlike other humpbacks distinguished by their epic 9,000km migrations, the Arabian Sea population has remained separate from other humpbacks for possibly 70,000 years.
